Description of Tool or App
Diigo is a cloud-based bookmarking site that requires an account set-up which can be completed at http://www.diigo.com/ There are three different plans available. The Free plan allows the user unlimited bookmarks, 1000 highlights/year, and 30 cached pages/year. The Basic plan costs $20 a year. It offers the user unlimited bookmarks, unlimited highlights, and a full text search. The Premium plan costs $40 a year and includes all the featurres of the Basic plan plus unlimited cached pages, unlimited screen captures, and priority support. Education plans are also available for teachers. This plan includes unlimited bookmarking and highlighting, 20 cached pages,screen captures and annotations, and saved web images a month. A comparison of the plans is available at http://www.diigo.com/premium/pricing_table_details .

According to the website, Diigo is a cloud-based personal management system which allows the user to to annotate any online materials by using digital highlighting and sticky notes and save them to the user's personal library on the Diigo server. All the user's materials can be accessed from any web browser, iPads, iPhones, and Android devices. Bookmarked pages can be tagged making it easy for the user to organize their information. Webpages can be downloaded to iPhones to be read later when then is no Internet access. This video provides detailed information on Diigo http://vimeo.com/12687333 .

The Education plan allows teachers to create private student accounts. Students do not need to have email addresses in order for these accounts to be created. Classes or groups can be created allowing for collaboration between students. Because of pre-set privacy setting, only member of the group and the teacher can communicate with each other. Teachers and students are able to share webpages with their group members. Teachers can see the groups members accounts and monitor their progress. Teachers receive daily Diigo Education updates which includes such items as new Web 2.0 tools, educational articles, and lesson plans.


Benefits of Tool or App
  1. Diigo builds collaboration between students as they can share bookmarked materials with their group members.
  2. Bookmarked materials in the user's library can be accessed anywhere.
  3. The user can annotate online articles with digital highlighting and sticky notes.
  4. A great way for students to save and access research material.
  5. This tool can be used for any subject.
  6. Diigo can be accessed on mobile devices.
  7. Student email accounts are not needed for the Diigo Education plan.
  8. A variety of videos are available to demonstrate features and uses of Diigo.


Constraints of Tool or App
  1. The Diigo tool bar needs to be installed on the computer for easier student use. At my school, Deep Freeze needs to be taken off the computers in order to complete this process.
  2. Without an Education account, the user is limited as to the features available.
  3. Students cannot collaborate with members outside of their group.
  4. Teacher modeling of highlighting and sticky note features is required for successful student use of Diigo.


How To Use Tool or App
  1. Go to www.diigo.com to create an account.
  2. Install the Diigo toolbar when signing into your Diigo account.
  3. To bookmark a desired page, click on the down arrow by bookmark and fill in the information that you want for the page.
  4. Click on "more options" to send bookmarked page to any of your groups that you have created.
  5. Use the features on the toolbar to annotate any webpages.
  6. On the Diigo homepage, click on "Educators Get Started"
  7. Upgrade to an Educator Account
  8. When approved, sign in to your Diigo account, select the Teacher Console button at the top of the screen.
  9. Click "Create a Group for My Class"
  10. Provide a group name, description of the group, and make the group either public or private.
  11. Create student accounts by entering their first name and initial for their last name.
  12. Click "create" and confirm accounts by clicking "ok".
  13. Go to Teacher Console and click on print names to print user/password information to give to students.


Original Artifact of Tool or App (created by someone in your house)

Diigo Student Accounts.jpg
I added a sticky note with questions to the website students will be using in the lesson.

Mars Rover.jpg



Classroom Uses for Tool or App

Student Uses
  1. Students can share websites with group members and collaborate on research projects.
  2. Students can highlight and add sticky notes to their web research sources instead of taking notes
  3. Students can bookmark sources and have access to these materials anywhere.

Teacher Uses
  1. Teachers can go paperless by bookmarking and sharing websites with their students.
  2. Teachers can set up groups for collaboration amongst students.
  3. Teachers can monitor what their students are annotating on their websites and sharing with their group.